Yogeshwar Dutt's London Olympics 2012 medal may be upgraded to gold

Azerbaijan's Toghrul Asgarov, who won the 60kg freestyle gold at the 2012 London Games, has reportedly tested positive and this could open a possibility of Yogeshwar getting the gold medal

India’s Yogeshwar Dutt displays his bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London

New Delhi: Just days after Yogeshwar Dutt’s London Olympics bronze was upgraded to silver, the star Indian wrestler’s medal may now get converted into gold with champion Toghrul Asgarov also returning positive for banned substance, a media report said yesterday.

According to the report, Asgarov of Azerbaijan, who won the gold medal in the men’s 60kg freestyle category at the 2012 London Games, has tested positive for consuming performance enhancing drugs. Earlier, Russian agency - flowrestling.org – had reported that the four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist Besik Kudukhov of Russia, who had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia, was found to have used a banned substance in a test conducted by the WADA. With both the gold and silver medallists in 60kg category testing positive for banned substance, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men’s 60kg freestyle in London, is in line to get a gold in case his sample comes out clean.

Not official yet
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is yet to officially communicate the news of Asgarov’s testing positive to the world body — United World Wrestling (UWW). In fact, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is still awaiting official news on Yogeshwar’s silver medal upgradation also with UWW yet to confirm the development, as Yogeshwar’s sample is also being tested. As per WADA’s revised norms, samples taken for dope tests from international tournaments are now been stored in deep freeze up to 10 years in order to allow the use of advanced technology, available with the passage of time, to catch the dope cheats.

Azerbaijan’s Toghrul Asgarov celebrates in London. Pics/ AFP

The IOC has been re-testing the samples collected at London as well as 2008 Beijing Olympics, besides other international tournaments, keeping in view of the new rules. Yogeshwar, who had bowed out in the first round of men’s 65kg freestyle at the recently concluded Rio Olympic Games, had lost to Kudukhov in the pre-quarterfinals at London. But once the Russian advanced to the final, Yogeshwar got another chance in the repechage round and went on to win bronze.

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